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Warning: May contain disturbing images. Also gratuitous political commentary.

Excerpt from a letter printed in Fortean Times 350 – February 2017

According to a letter printed in Fortean Times 350 (February 2017): “… the scientists/physicists at CERN are preparing to open wormholes connecting dimensions in the Universe despite pleas form Christian evangelicals who warn that this will release demonic entities into our world since Satan commands the Second Heaven.”

A month later FT 351 shows us the remains of a stone dead stone marten killed at CERN; said remains now being displayed at the Natural History Museum of Rotterdam. Evidently this marten sacrificed himself in November 20 of last year. The previous April another marten did a ditto.

Scan of part of article that appeared in March 2017 issue of Fortean Times re marten martyrs

Fortean analysis suggests CERN is under assault from evangelicals using marten mercenaries in an effort to prevent the Big Nasty popping through CERN’s dimensional portholes and thereby instigating End Times. This thus far not working they elected a twittery twat to end the world on their terms.

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Contacted pHantaBlog occasional reader living in vicinity of Geneva for comment. Got this back:

Locally the “stone martin” or “beach martin” is called a fouine. We have had trouble with fouines crawling into our car engines and eating electrical cables and brake lines. To the best of my knowledge they didn’t know that we worked at …, although it’s true that if they understand diplomatic plate numbering schemes that they could have figured it out.

Scan of full article from Fortean Times March 2017 issue re Fried Foutines

The fouine on display at the museum in Rotterdam is one of two that were fried in CERN LHC-related electrical power stations over the past couple of years or so. There was also an incident of a bird (apparently a bird) dropping the remnant stub of a baguette into transformer in a place that was only accessible from above.

But I don’t actually believe that the local fauna is rising up against CERN. More likely they’re rising up against the large number of mega department blocks being built to feed the insatiable demand for housing around Geneva.

It being 8 December 2016, must be time to recall the tragedy of 36 years ago. Around here that generally means pulling out one of my three favourite seasonal songs. It’s called ‘Happy Xmas (War is over)’.

John Lennon’s song actually is called Happy Xmas. Which, in turn, bring to mind the attached graphic and this comment, as made on pHantacea on pHacebook a couple of days ago:

“To which might be added: You don’t need to be a Xuthrodite to like swimming on Xmas Day in warmer climes. (Xuthros Hor = the Biblical Noah in the Phantacea Mythos. He looks Japanese and rides a Raven’s Head according to cover of “Forever & Forty Days — the Genesis of Phantacea” — wraparound cover double-clicks there

The Day of the Dead was last week. Except in what will henceforth be known as the United States of Am-idiocy. Actually, thinking about it this morning, yesterday was more like the Day of the Deadhead down there.

Have some sugar skulls shot at a local Vancouver restaurant on October 27, 2016.

Note that (presumably) the same Katrina (second one down) found its way into the Wilderwitch’s Babies promotional collage currently found on www.phantacea.com. Evidently she does not need to be kept in a refrigerator to last from year to year.

Jim McPhersonPhantacea Publications has this year’s pick of the pumpkin prowl. Even though Jacks are by default orange, no comment meant re last night’s conclusion to smear campaign in Am-idiocy.

“Holy Hola Hoops, Harry lad!” Young Death almost spoke those words of greeting to Harry “Ringleader” Zeross during Pregame Gambit (http://www.phantacea.com/#pdfDec). Seems an appropriate hola from down here in Touristic Dentistry land. Got one last appointment b4 heading home next Sunday so have been mostly offline for a while.

You’ll be very surprised just how wrong I got a very nearly canonical storyline originally scripted for the Phantacea Phase Two series of 1980s comic books (that never were) back in the early 20-Zeros,

Source of Viennese Photo Montage

Though shot in 2010 at a public gallery in Vienna, Austria, it turns out that the otherwise unidentified photo montage used in the cover collage in this row began as a photo taken for the National Geographic’s June 1984 issue and as such can’t be pHanta-used as is.

The subject’s name is Sharbat Gula, at the time (1984) age 12. More on pH-Webworld‘s Summer 2016 entry of Serendipity and …

Rejected full cover for "Decimation Damnation" mini-novel

Background image is a sunset taken at Jericho Beach in Vancouver, July 2015; Easter Island Moai taken from the Web then solarized

Rejected front cover for DecDam

Wilderwitch representative spotted and shot in a Vienna, Austria, city gallery in 2010; Moai used to represent between-space stone gnomes reputed to exist in the Weirdom of Cabalarkon

Did manage to retain the darker version of the cover for use on one or the other of the mini-novel’s digital editions (PDF or e-pub). So hardly a wasted effort.

Took out the face, save for the hair and eyes, of the Afghan Girl and filled in space with Daemonic Desperation graphics. Like result a lot … but may not use it for print to blackness issues. Should be okay for digital editions, though.

He’d didn’t bruit this about on any of the Phantacea websites because he mistakenly thought he was keeping the town a private delight. Guess what? It didn’t work. So much so that by the time he decided to return there this year it was packed.

He ended up staying — index fingers crossed in a warding gesture of just that, a cross — at the Hacienda Morelos. Here’s his report, as first published on the booking.com website earlier this week:

Business card used by Jim McPherson when in Phantacea mode; the Pharaoh’s head is actually a parking shot on Giza Plateau as shot by Egyptian air force circa 1929/30; Sedon’s Head by Jim McPherson and Tim Hammell, ca 1978

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“Gorgeous setting about only good thing about Hacienda Morelos”

Situated right on a ledge above a nearly endless, soft sand, Caribbean beach that’s kept fairly clean. (Trash cans could do with more frequent dumping and the sargassum sea weed, while not as bad as last year, needs more aggressive attention.) Gorgeous view of diving and fishing boats and tenders, with the port, hence Puerto Morelos, in distance.

View from the terrace of the Hacienda Morelos after a rain storm

A short walk to town square (zocala), a selection of good restaurants and a decent coffee house. One place even serves Austro-Hungarian goulash while a couple have outrageously pricey lamb. Lots of music in the bars and restaurants, though nothing at hotel, fortunately, which was quiet at night. I say fortunately because much of my stay was unfortunate.

Had to ask for towels as none were supplied at first. When I complained about the lack of hot water in shower, the desk clerk suggested I didn’t get up early enough; that everyone showers between 7 and 9 a.m., and that water containers can only heat so much.

Looking up at the Hacienda Morelos as shot from the beach in February 2016 by Jim McPherson

Besides, she added, it’s usually hot, so guests don’t mind tepid shower water. (It did rain a few times and the wind was nearly constant, so not the best weather. But I was there to write and the town was down the street, so didn’t mind too much.)

Kitchen ran out of black tea after two days and never replaced stock for remaining five days. (Couldn’t find any in the local store but never checked Oxxo, the omnipresent Mexican equivalent of 7-Eleven.) The continental breakfast consisted of stale white toast, dubious pineapple marmalade, juice and either coffee or tea, read Nescafe and caffeine-free Manzanilla Chamomile. Everything else is extra.

I asked for plain yogurt and granola but they never had any granola, so they didn’t charge me. Once they substituted pink lemonade for juice and another time powdered Tang or some such. So don’t jump at offer of a free breakfast likr . Or the advertised notion that WiFi is available throughout hotel. It isn’t.

Shot of a rainbow taken from Hacienda Morelos terrace, image flipped horizontally.

In fact, it’s only available in the lobby or on the terrace and even then you need two separate sign-ins. Fortunately (again) I was assigned a terrace room, which was actually on the pool deck. Scuba lessons started at 8 a.m. but were usually done by 10. The doors had no screens and the room had no overhead fans. The air conditioning was so loud I shut it off. Something of a blessing, the windows that opened did have screens.

Perhaps worst of all were the pillows. They were so stuffed with foam they had no give. Instead of cushioning your head they more like bruised it. I asked for down pillows but they didn’t have any. Gave me a couple of pillows with some of the foam removed, which was better. Except one of them hadn’t been sewn up properly and I ended up with foam all over the bed, floor and me, until I noticed it. Rather than replacing it they doubled up the pillow casing.

Won’t be returning to Hacienda Morelos anytime soon. Even without the to me shocking add-on of 19% tax, it’s an overpriced shell of what once, twenty or thirty years ago, might have been a fabulous place to stay.

Phantacea Publications logo utilizing a Sun-Moon wood carving spotted and shot by Jim McPherson, 2014; taken to represent the Dual Entities during happy times

Jim McPherson, the creator/writer of the Phantacea Mythos, readily admits to being confused once in awhile. Not with aforesaid Phantacea Mythos, which he claims is perfectly straightforward, but with many vagaries of the modern world.

As he’s remarked frequently, and also in writing (most recently in Serendipity and …), he’s never quite understood why almost everyone seems to accept that winter begins on the solstice when, equally so, it’s traditionally known as Yule or Midwinter’s Day.

Wheel clearly shows the Summer Solstice is Midsummer’s Day, meaning the Winter Solstice (Yule) should be Midwinter’s Day

Unless it’s the Iliad, which starts ‘in media res’, in the middle of things, one doesn’t usually start much of anything on its middle day. To that end — albeit only mid-blog — here is something cribbed from his Facebook site (not to be confused with pHantacea on pHacebook) on the 19th of December 2015.

Today’s editorial in the [Vancouver] Sun didn’t exactly state that Monday doesn’t mark the first day of Winter but implies as much. In fact a letter to the Editor from Megan Schram dated 17 December makes clear the Solstice is more correctly thought of as Midwinter’s Day, Yule or only the fourth day of the eight day celebration of Saturnalia. Which in turn culminates on Mithramas, what only later became Christmas.

“Christmas is a tradition that has evolved over centuries. Roman Pagans introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, which was celebrated from December 17-25. Christianity tried to import Saturnalia to convert the Pagan masses. Because there was nothing Christian about it, they decided to name December 25 as Christ’s birthday and call it Christmas. Despite the takeover, Christmas continued to be celebrated with much food, drinking and hedonistic pleasure. Today’s customs of the tree, mistletoe, and exchanging gifts are Pagan in origin and were usurped by Christians …”

[Hit here and scroll down slightly for the complete letter to the editor as it appears online.]

The editorial referred to above is here. Have a couple of direct, howsoever florid, quotes that may or may not prove the point.

“In truth, the frosty boots of winter have been on the march toward Tuesday’s seasonal coronation for some time now …

“Yet if Tuesday’s solstice marks the official start of winter, it also marks the beginning of its unofficial end … In a scant six weeks or so, it will be spring that begins its march up the river valleys and mountain slopes, melting the cornices of blown snow that now adorn our glittering peaks.”

While that should settle that, it doesn’t because, you know, it’s just too damn complicated a re-think. Halloween is not the last day of Autumn. Imbolc Day (February the First or Second) is not the first day of Spring and Summer doesn’t start on Beltane (the beginning of May). Winter starts on the solstice, period, end entry.

As for today, if the time of the solstice is 11:48 EST tonight, which my calendar says it is, how can today be Midwinter’s Day? Might it not more correctly be considered Midwinter’s Night? Or, better yet, Midwinter’s Eve, making tomorrow Midwinter’s Day?

Happy Xmas from deities born on or around December 25!

(Introductory Note: Xmas may come from the Greek letter X, pronounced Chi, as in the first letters of Christ. However, in the Phantacea Mythos, it comes from Xuthros Hor, the Biblical Noah. Who, on account of the Noh Theatre, looks Japanese on the cover of “Forever & 40 Days — the Genesis of Phantacea”, a graphic novel that came out in 1990.)

Got this graphic off the web after it appeared somewhere on Facebook.

Sixteen “mythological” gods who celebrated their birthday around the Winter Solstice

Quite a lot of these fellows (no goddesses on list), or variations thereof, appear during the course of the Phantacea Mythos.

The All-Seeing Eye of Providence, not Horus, as shot by Jim McPherson, 2008, within the chapel of the highly recommended Quinta da Regaleira (where it’s called “The Flaming Triangle” for some reason) in Sintra Portugal

Additionally seems to me Adonis was mentioned during the course of ‘Feel Theo’ as one of Attis’s aspects during the 500-year era of the Goddess Culture on the Outer Earth (ca 2000 – 1500 BC).

Certainly Krishna’s girlfriend Lakshmi, even if she wasn’t nominally considered that in ancient times due to the prevalence of avatars, contributed her name to a surviving leader of D-Brig’s boo-hiss meter in the aftermath of “The War of the Apocalyptics“.

While on the topic of goddesses, Dionysus’s mother was Semele, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, variations of whom appear in the upcoming “Wilderwitch’s Babies” storyline.

E-Pox now available on the Kindle platform

His Cretan consort contributed her name to a character, Ariadne Atreides, who appeared during ‘The Volsung Variations‘ web-serials of the early 2000s on pH-Webworld.

Further to this and Point 2 above, being Master Devas, Tammuz and Osiraq weren’t just twins. They were two of three. Their triplet came to be called Novadev.

Helios, with his ‘holocaster’, and the She-Sphinx (All of Incain) , with Thunder and Lightning Lord Yajur (Lord Order) sneaking up on them; artwork by Ricardo Sandoval taken from front cover of print version of Helios on the Moon

As per “Feeling Theocidal“, he was atomized (cathonitized, become a star in the night’s sky above the Hidden Headworld) circa 1500 BC. Did so while drinking with Phantacea versions of that Cadmus (called Kadmon) and that Harmonia (the incomparable Harmony Unity).

Just in case you missed it in “Helios on the Moon“, or way back in 1977’s Phantacea One, Colonel Avatar Sol exploded near the moon. Miracle Memory (at least partially based on that Harmony) tells Heliosophos (who may have been that Kadmon in his second lifetime) that Sol was possessed of that Novadev.

Oh, yes, one of the subplots in the upcoming “Wilderwitch’s Babies” storyline has to do with efforts by the aforementioned Pyrame (Providence) Silverstar seeking to entice her forever lover, the Moloch Sedon — none other than the Mighty Eye-Mouth in the Sky that was featured on the wraparound cover reprinted immediately below — into undoing the damage done by the Idiot Twins as per the aforementioned mini-novel “The Death’s Head Hellion“.

Jim McPherson, the creator/writer of the Phantacea Mythos, generally confines his rants to his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pHantaJim). Not at all coincidentally pHantaJim is also the name of this page’s blog-meister. Funny that.

Phantacea is the Greek word for ‘imagination’. John Lennon wrote ‘Imagine’. Thirty-five years ago today his illusory ‘side effect’ did not go out for a walk.

As detailed throughout “Goddess Gambit“, Book Three of “The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories‘ fantasy epic, and the ultimately related Launch 1980 story cycle, plenty was going on thirty-five years ago in the Phantacea Mythos.

Double-click to enlarge; the better to read if you do. Artwork is from the two Phantacea Revisited graphic novels.

– “Goddess Gambit”: On Dustmound, Smiler, now possessing Molorchus, insists Vetala bears and has his azuras; when she refuses he reveals to her the truth of the VAM Entity, the amalgamate abom­ination (Mithras, Varuna & Ahriman were Thrygragos Sedon’s firstborn, not as per here the Thanatoids of Lathakra plus brood brother Phantast), and the consequential fact that her actual father was Sedon, not Mit­ravaruna;

– “Nuclear Dragons”: In NYC, someone kills John Lennon; hearing of it on Centauri Island Hiyati Samarand (homunculus possessed by Bodiless Byron’s Dragon) has a heart attack; by now most of Sentalli’s Untouch­ables, most of whom turned out to be homunculi, aka homun beings, have died;

– “Goddess Gambit”: Final battle for Dustmound begins; Trigregos Titan (Vetala’s Soldier) caked by tellurian material in the form of demons projected by Molorchus-Smiler (who’d established a pipeline to hell itself);

– “Helios on the Moon”: Indescribable Mr No Name brings the cosmicompani­ons out of the computer while Smythe brings devic eyes to UNES Lib­erty; Strife takes over Mnemosy­ne Machine (unoccupied aspect of the Female Entity, that of memory); claims she has ejected the future Erebe-Night (actually Demon Queen Lilith, Smiler-Daemonicus’s Gomorrah) into a black hole after Starrus-Yajur;

Phantacea Publications logo utilizing a Sun-Moon wood carving spotted and shot by Jim McPherson, 2014; taken to represent the Dual Entities during happy times